A Special Christmas Memory: Revisiting Mary's Song

0:00 [music] You're listening to Aging Today, the podcast where together we explore the options to aging on your terms. When I get older, lose a fire, many years from now, we used to be sending me a fountain for a day, greetings out of wine, if I did I'd kill quarter of three would you like to do? Will you still leave me, will you still feed me when I'm sixty four?

0:42 And now the podcast where together we discuss proactive aging on your terms, connecting to the professional advice of our special guests while creating better days throughout the aging process. Now here's your host, Mark Turnbull. And welcome back to another lively discussion on Aging Today, we are the podcast where together we explore the many options to aging on your terms. You can find aging today and our seven years of past programs and we're just about ready to usher in our eighth year. This is our Christmas edition, but next week we're going to be shifting into eight years of past programs, pretty amazing.

1:24 And then also you can follow us on any of your favorite podcast channels such as Spotify, Pandora, Apple, I Heart and many, many others. And then finally we'd like to hear from all of you our listeners. We want to know the questions that you're asking on the aging process. And then if you know of any aging experts that you feel would be interesting to have on our show, reach out to me, your host, Mark Turnbull. And my email is Mark@AgingToday.us. That's Mark with a K at agingToday.us. Well as many of you know, this is the time of year when traditionally we over the past seven years.

2:09 Our our pastor if you will for aging today, his name is Tom Scheiv at personal friend of mine. We went to seminary together and share a common past, but we also share a common present. And we're Tom is here today and he's going to join us and bring the Christmas message. Tom, welcome to aging today. Great to be with you, Mark again. A fantastic, always good to be a part of aging today and you're right. It's an outstanding time of year. In fact, it's the most wonderful time of the year I think. In you know, for the church for all of us as we go into the Christmas season, I mean people love the move, you know, the mood of Christmas, they love the music of Christmas.

2:57 And there's a kind of magical quality to Christmas. I think people appreciate that. There's something that captures everybody, whether they're religious people or not, there's something about Christmas. So yeah, it's a great time of year. Great to be with you again through all these years. Yeah, it is. Yes. Now for those of our listening audience that don't know you, let's dive a little bit into your past. Tell us a little bit about how you became a pastor and you know, where you're pastoring actively right now and you know, just give us a little history. Well, I grew up in a religious home and about the age of 17, I made a radical decision to follow Jesus.

3:43 And that changed the whole direction of my life. I invited him to be my manager. I invited him to be my rescuer. I invited him to take control of my life. And as a result, I ended up in a church where I was given the scriptures where I grew and at the time, I was playing college football in Illinois and just wondering what direction I was going to take. And I just one night walked forward and decided that I would give my life over to Christ to serve him in as a pastor or any way he wanted me to. And I ended up getting a strong call to be a pastor.

4:26 And I have, I redirected my education. I ended up at a Bible school and then initially going into seminary where you and I've met and I've been in the local church since I was 20 years old. So it's been 48 years of being in the local church. And I currently pastor gateway church in Portland, Oregon, which is just a bit east of 122nd Avenue and it goes, you know, a little bit east down on San Rafael, right down there by Portland, Christian High School, Winco, all that kind of urban area there in the park, Rose area. And church is a delightful place.

5:07 We have great people there. We've got the worship center decorated with magic and trees and all kinds of things. It's just a very, very good place to be, a place for people who are rich in their faith, a place for people who have given up on their faith and might just want to come back. I mean, the, you know, those that view that may be done with church, I encourage you to give us a try because you'll find just a lot of freedom and acceptance and you'll find a place where your relationship with God is the most important thing and we want you to grow in that relationship and flourish personally as a person. And we put you in touch with Jesus and you'll enjoy our people and many, many people are.

5:52 Yeah, you don't even have to go to the actual physical brick and mortar building. Your messages are online. Yeah, yeah. Our messages are online. You just go to gatewaychurchpdx.com, our website and you'll find our little red and white arrow there, YouTube channel. And you can click on there. The sermons are all on there. You can take us in on live stream. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. We have a number of sites that are taking in our church service in Europe now, which is very fascinating. We got a site in Ukraine, Finland, the Netherlands, three in Russia.

6:32 Wow. Yeah. Yeah, one in Ukraine, actually. And another one in India. And then we have some other sites scattered throughout the United States. These are just people who have visited the red website on a regular basis and are now watching gateway church, which is pretty remarkable. So we're very grateful for our live stream audience and very grateful for those that are there every Sunday morning at 10.30. Yeah. Now, how long have you been a pastor? How many years? Well, I was ordained to the ministry in 1979. So that's 44 years. That's a long time. That's a long time.

7:14 And what do you attribute that to? I mean, longevity and the motivation for... I mean, what is it that drives you to keep sustaining yourself as a mouthpiece of God? Well, what sustains me, first of all, I think is God's grace in my life by giving me really good health. I mean, I got to admit, God's giving me really, really good health. And I'm thankful for that right now. I don't take that for granted. You know, that can be. But I also... I see life change. I see people who are in situations and their lives suddenly change when they come to a relationship with Jesus. One of my favorite quotes is the quote by C.S. Lewis where he said, "I believe in Christianity, like I believe in the sun.

8:00 Not only do I see it, but by it I see everything else." And I see that. I see people suddenly have this relationship with God where they're forgiven and the light suddenly goes on and their whole lives start to take a journey and they start to thrive in areas and they don't worry. I mean, it's the transformational work of the Holy Spirit that keeps me in it. I see it. I see it. And the ability to really make an impact on people. That gets me out of bed every day because I'm not just here for myself. I'm not here for myself. I'm here for others and there's so much that can be done. So I just want to finish my life well and so far so good.

8:42 I'd like to get to 50 years. Actually, that would be... It's 48 right now. So two more years and I can get to 50. But I still feel... I still feel that calling as strong as ever. I don't have any sense of changing. I just never have had any sense of stopping what I'm doing. I cannot not do this. I cannot not do it. I mean, it's just... Is this something that I wake up every day and go, "Man, I get such a joy in doing this." It's pretty cool. Do you see a sense of urgency? Think about when you started in the ministry, you know, 48 years ago.

9:23 And where the culture was 48 years ago. And now where our culture is... Is there any motivating factors along there where you see the culture changing? So dramatically. For me, it appears and feels like we're a society that is moving away from God in some respects. And maybe in other respects, there's a calling or a movement towards God because we move so far away. Yeah, I think you've nailed it there. Christianity used to be at the very center of culture, you know, at least it was something that kind of kept us more. A lot of people feel on more now because Christianity is just one of many religious choices.

10:07 We live here in the United States, particularly in what is called pluralism. That just means there's a number of religions. And that's by design, actually, because the founding fathers said you can have freedom of religion and be an American. So you could come over from anywhere in the world, bring your religion with you as long as you're an American, as long as you follow that. And we are the most religiously plural nation in the world. We have more religions than any other nation in the world. We have more openness to other religions as in the world. But as that has happened, also has Christianity then sort of become one of many choices as opposed to the framework that everything could flourish in.

10:52 So that framework's been taken down. Secondly, technology has really, we think it should connect us, but it's made us even more lonely. The surgeon general has come out and said, we've never lived in a more lonely time. Crazy, crazy to think, but he also said, if you smoke, if you're lonely, it's the equivalent of smoking 16 cigarettes a day to your health. In other words, loneliness is out there. It's all the information, it's all of the connections on Facebook and email. People are more lonely than ever. And so you just said people are coming back and they're coming back to the churches for community.

11:35 They're coming back for connection. They're coming back to find a place to belong. They're coming back to find a place that is meaningful where they get a human touch and they get in touch with people who love them and really love them. They don't say it over Facebook. They say it to their face. I love you and I'm here for you. What do you need? So your right, Mark, things have radically changed and there is a lot of loneliness out there. And I was thinking about the word pluralism that you have. And there are many Christians that are concerned about that pluralism. But throughout history, pluralism of many religions isn't foreign or new to the scriptures.

12:18 In fact, Paul and the disciples went into the public square and they were many, many religions in that day just as there are many, many religions. So we shouldn't be afraid of that. No. No, what we should do is we should show the beauty and the freedom of Christianity because if I can just make a quick statement here, the difference between Christianity and all other world religions is what I call the two letter difference. Many other world religions says it's my faith in what I do that equals salvation or eternal life or life with God. My faith in what I do.

12:59 The Christians says no. It's my faith in what Christ has done. Notice the N and E on the backside of do. And as a result, I have salvation and do good things. So it's not, I don't have to work to get my salvation. My works are an expression of the fact that I already have it. That's the key. All other world religions, you have to do something. So there is a sense of spiritual insecurity. I mean, what happens when I die? Did I do enough? What if I get there in the great is 95 and I got a 90? I mean, all of that, you know, instead we, we rest completely in Jesus and what he's done for us.

13:45 Like the thief on the cross. So that's it. We're going to talk about the Christmas. Yeah, yeah, it's Christmas. It's Christmas day and we're going to talk about the Christmas story. Now, set the context, set the tone for us. For a few thousand years, there's the Christian God and the Jewish God who, you know, I mean, this was pre-Christian. Okay. This was the Jewish God and the setting was the God's people and all the stories of God's interaction with His people.

14:28 And it's been written down in the Hebrew scriptures, the Torah, right? And now all of a sudden, you know, at a point, and here's a, here's a change. Here's something that's coming in. It's intervening. He's been silent for four to five hundred years. The last time he had contact with his people, his chosen people, the Jewish nation. And it's been silent. And then all of a sudden, this miraculous thing begins to happen. So give us a little bit of context. Okay. Well, let's, let's take a really broad sweep. The Bible is, the Bible is made up of, in essence, four large chapters.

15:12 There's the creation. There's the fall of mankind. There's the redemption of mankind at the cross of Jesus. And then there's the renewal of the earth. Those are really four key big blocks in the Bible. So you have creation and then from the Garden of Eden all the way until the cross of Jesus, the cross of Jesus, you have the fall. The Old Testament is all about people trying to live for God with laws outside themselves that God gives to show His holiness. God is a great God, but God is a loving God and He constantly tells them, "I love you. Israel keeps falling away." At the end of the Old Testament, you have a close at Malachi.

15:56 And then you've got that four hundred silent years. I mean, think about that. It isn't that God's not working. It's just, there's no prophets. It, the synagogues develop. You know, different kinds of religion develop. The rabbis add numerous laws to the law. So what you're getting in the New Testament is you're getting not only the Old Testament law, but laws written by the Pharisees and the religious community to help people try to obey those laws. But nothing outside changes the heart. So Israel, which looked at Abraham and David as the key years, the glory of David is gone.

16:37 That temple worship, that beautiful sacrifice is all that is gone. And you had a takeover by the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and then the Greeks come on the scene and hella lies the world. So you've got Greek language and then the Romans take over. Now Israel's become a glorious nation to a puppet nation and an oppressed nation to the Romans. And the Romans have taken it over. And the religious sect called the Sadducees of which are Jewish go into the Romans and they're the political arm of Judaism. The Pharisees are the protective arm of Judaism in the sense of the law and holiness, but they blew it because it was all works.

17:20 And they lost this waiting for the Messiah. So here you've got a hopeless, hopeless nation. Four hundred years of nothing, no prophet, no voice. And then all of a sudden, as we talked a little earlier, Gabriel comes to Zechariah a priest. Okay. Gabriel is God's key angel in sending messages. Okay. Michael is his warrior angel. Gabriel in the New Testament, an Old Testament is a messenger angel that when some people call him the FedEx angel, when it absolutely positively has to get there, God gives it to Gabriel because he gets it there.

18:03 All of a sudden in a normal situation where a priest is in the temple doing a yearly burning of incense, all of a sudden, Gabriel shows up to Zechariah and says, "Hey, you're your wife, Elizabeth, you guys are old. You're somewhere beyond bearing children." So you could think of 50, 60 maybe in there, you know? And he says, "Your wife is going to have a child." Now understand that in Jewish culture, when you didn't have a child as a woman, you were viewed in some ways as forgotten by God.

18:44 Or you were viewed as cursed, or you were viewed as someone who lacked spirit, all those things. It was the role of children. And Zechariah, notice what it says in the text there, Mark? He prayed for his wife. He had been praying because Gabriel shows up and says, "I've heard your prayer. God's heard your prayer. Zechariah must have been praying even now. This is give us a child, which is an amazing thought." So this starts the whole thing. This is the world transforming message of Christmas. It is profound, suddenly after that. After this 400 years of silence, God shows up and says, "Now I'm sending your son and he's going to be named John."

19:32 And as you go on in the text, you'll notice that in chapters one and two, he's going to be a prophet. It's almost as though he's going to be the last Old Testament prophet, and he's going to prepare the way for the Messiah. Everything in the Old Testament is now coming to consummation in the person of Jesus, because even Jesus said, "You searched the Scriptures, believing in them, you have eternal life." When all those Scriptures, and what were the Scriptures, you said it, the Torah, the Old Testament, all those Scriptures Jesus says, point to me. And so now Gabriel is saying, yep, yep, everything was the time. Now is the time. Now is the time.

20:13 The life-changing fulfillment of what was in the Old Testament is going to happen now. Who's going to sit on David's throne? Who's going to take up Abraham's seat and spread it around? Who's going to die for sacrifices of sin? All these sacrifices in the Old Testament mark pointed to Jesus, one sacrifice. All that's coming to a consummation. But this story unfolds in the book of Luke. Luke, and unfolds in the book of Luke. And Luke, I've titled a series in Luke called Jesus for everyone, because you look in the book of Luke. Luke expands on this because he's Greek. He's not even a Jew.

20:53 He met the Apostle Paul later and then got these stories from perhaps Mary and others and wrote them all down and added a few himself. So Luke now is a Gentile. So he's a Gentile. So the whole book of Luke is this book about God going outside Judaism and reaching everyone. Jesus is for everyone. And so in the book of Luke, you're going to find that everyone is in there. You've got a tax collector. You've got a woman who's been unjustly treated by judges. You've got all these people. Jesus is for them. He's for them. And so that's the concept. That's the redemption of all men. That's the redemption of every person doesn't matter where you are.

21:36 It doesn't matter what religion you've had. It doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter any of that stuff. Jesus is for everyone. And he starts off with a senior couple, a agent couple. Then he goes to a teenager, Mary, who's probably 13 or 14 years old when she gets this message. So and then he goes to shepherds and delivers a message. And shepherds weren't exactly looked at with great, you know, great passion. They were sort of a little bit of an outcast there. And then he goes to a senior couple who have been in the church for a long time at the temple. And they've been praying, praying, praying, praying, praying their hearts out for a long time.

22:20 And suddenly Jesus shows up and they go, this is it. This is the answer to our prayer. And everything starts. So Mary gets this message of Jesus' birth right to her. Okay. So Elizabeth and Zechariah got the message that they're praying. And he was a priest. And he was a priest. He was a priest. Right. And there were thousands of priests in Jerusalem in that area at the time. And he drew the card, the one nice lottery card in many ways, to go burn incense on an altar, which most priests didn't have the privilege of doing. So God is setting this up, you know, in his own powerful way. Yeah.

23:01 And then as a result of this message being revealed to Zechariah, he becomes mute. He becomes mute because he says, almost like he says, I can't believe this. How can this be? I don't believe it. And for some reason God chooses to give, to make him mute. So he can't say anything. He can't say what all the experience that happened. He says his name is going to be John. And he can't even say that. But he does have the ability to write on a little wax tablet and talk to his wife, Elizabeth about it. So she obviously knew. Okay. So we've set the context in Luke 1 in the very first 25 verses, the story of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth and the announcement of John the Baptist.

23:49 John the Baptist. So prepare the way who will prepare the way for the Messiah who then Gabriel goes to Mary. His young woman Mary. Yeah. It's interesting. We were talking a little earlier about the fact that in our culture, birth announcements are always made on Twitter or they're made on TikTok or they're made on Instagram or something like that. And these two birth announcements are made by an angel. Well, you know, that's one up from ours. And the angel comes to Mary and pretty well says, okay, John the Baptist, there's, you are going to have a Jesus the Messiah. John the Baptist is going to be born and I love what Luke 3 says. He's the stage hand. So John the Baptist is like setting the stage and he's going to be born to Elizabeth.

24:33 Your son is going to be the person that comes out on the stage. So John the Baptist is kind of like the stage hand. He's moving everything around, getting everything ready for everybody and then all of a sudden the curtain pulls up and Jesus walks out. And John's going to be the stage hand. Jesus is going to be the main course, the main concert on that stage. And that's how it's all set up. Okay. And then we start that in verse 26 in chapter 1 of Luke. Yeah. Yeah, you do. You start that. And in the six month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God then rescends the angel Gabriel to Nazareth and begins then to confront Mary and unveils the story.

25:23 Well yeah, I mean, it's going to happen to her. Yeah. And I can't even imagine that happening to a young woman at the age of 14 or whatever. Yeah, 13 or 14. I mean, she's just going about her daily stuff. I mean, this is what makes it so awesome. Zacharias is just doing his thing in the temple and all of a sudden everything changes. It's a knock on Mary's door. I mean, it's just, that's all it is. It's a knock and suddenly she opens a door and there he is. You talk about shock. And it's not just an angel, but notice it says in the text, she's greatly troubled. Why have you visited? A lot of times angels come to bring messages of doom.

26:03 He comes and says, this is the greatest message ever. And he says to her, you are favored. You are favored. Because greetings you are highly favored. The Lord is with you and says she was troubled and wondered what kind of greeting that might be. But he said, Mary, you found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth of a son. And you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great. In fact, that word great is the word where we get the word mega. So he's going to be mega. And the Lord will give him the throne of his father, David. Notice the wording. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. It's all coming. Everything the throne of David, all done, house of Jacob, Abraham's all done.

26:49 He's going to rule and reign over that. So the Messiah that the Jews are looking for and the Savior of the world that the world is going to look for, he's coming. I haven't forgotten. So. Yeah. It's fascinating to think about the context of the history of all of this taking place. And it's in their time, in their world. And yes, I'm the mother that's going to bear this child that's going to save the world that's going to be the Messiah. That put her in a, you know, that put her in a bit of a conundrum. I mean, she's, she's engaged to be married to Joseph.

27:30 And, you know, this could be scandalous. This is scandalous in some ways. That's why Joseph goes off and says, what should I do? I mean, he is, he is kind of heartbroken. I'm engaged to this beautiful young 13, 14 year old girl and you could actually do that then. And all of a sudden he goes off and says, hey, you know, what am I going to do about this? Do I just quietly divorce her? So she's not shamed and do it, you know, but, but in quietly divorcing her, she becomes a single mom and a nessence is going to live with her parents, probably, for she's violated the moral code. And angels in essence come in, he has a dream and they say, don't, she's with the Messiah and he steps in.

28:12 Yeah. But still you could imagine the scandal of this and the believability of it. What I dreamt is it real is it true and then all the implications, I mean, you can imagine even though the angel came to her and to Joseph and spoke to them both, that this is what's going to happen. There's still got to be a lot of fear and intrepidation because of the unbelievers that are out there that this is not even possible. Right. Right. It's a scandalous thing. I mean, you know, it's again, Jesus for everyone, right? Jesus for this pregnant teenager.

28:55 He changes, you know, God changes the whole paradigm here. I mean, you thought maybe he could do it a different way. No, he doesn't because Jesus had to be born. Jesus had to go through childhood. He had to go and be raised up just like us. So it's an amazing story and that's where we start. Yeah. Now it's also history claims this as Mary's song. Why is this called Mary's song? Well, they call it the Magnificent because out of this whole thing, Mary sculpts this song. It's almost a beautiful series of verses. Some call it Mary's poem. It's called traditionally in the Catholic church and other churches, the Magnificent because it just exalts Jesus and talks about why he's coming and the hope that he's bringing and how he's going to change people, change culture, turn things upside down and how he's going to, in essence, answer this question, where is God?

29:54 Because that was the question on the lips of a lot of the people then. Where's God? Where is he? I mean, we're in a press culture. We're in a press culture. Jews were in a press culture at that time. They were a pain in Rome's backside in many ways. And the Romans didn't mind it because they had them under their leash, you know, and they didn't mind that kind of thing. But it's like, where's the glory here? We read about all these stories, partying the Red Sea, David's victories, all these conquests doesn't look very much like that anymore. It's been a hope, really, so many ways. So in verse 39, it says, at that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where he entered Zacharias home and greeted Elizabeth.

30:41 Then when Elizabeth heard of Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? What does that passage mean right there? In the context, why is that important, that narrative? Well I think something supernatural is going on there. I think first of all John the Baptist leaps and it isn't because he hears Elizabeth's voice. His mom's voice. He hears Mary's voice, which immediately points to the fact that she is bearing Jesus and that he is going to be the one to prepare the way. In fact, when he say, this was his first message that he brought, even in the womb, hey, he's the one.

31:28 I jumped, I jumped when I heard Mary's voice, he's the one, he's the Messiah. So some see it that way, which is really, really pretty good. It's got to be validating for Elizabeth. It's validating. For Zacharias and for Mary herself and Joseph, the validation of that. But notice this is supernatural because the Holy Spirit fills her at this point. Something really changes her at this point. The Holy Spirit, which was upon people prior to Pentecost, suddenly comes upon her and she sees things completely different. The Jewish nation did it talk about the Holy Spirit?

32:09 Well, it shows I always think of the Holy Spirit as something happening after Pentecost. Or later. But how does that work into the Jewish mindset when Luke was writing this and he uses the word the Holy Spirit? Would they have understood that? Yeah, they would have. They would have because it says in Genesis chapter 1 that the Spirit had got hovered over the waters. So we're talking about the Trinity here and we're seeing that the Holy Spirit was at work from the very beginning of time all the way through. When you read the Old Testament, you will often hear that statement. The Holy Spirit was upon him and he did great things as a result.

32:50 The Holy Spirit was sort of upon people and would empower them like Samson Mark. It says when he cut his hair, which was a symbol of his relationship with God and he gave himself over to Delilah. It said he did not know the Holy Spirit had left him. So up until that particular point, the Holy Spirit was on people, on them for power. Jesus says that you know who the Holy Spirit is because he's been with you. He told us disciples, "And one day he will go and live in you." So there's the transition and you'll see in Joel, it'll say the Holy Spirit will come and your young men and young women will prophesy.

33:33 So they were waiting. They knew that there was something coming that was going to be unique and different. So the narrative picks up in verse 42 and a loud voice she exclaimed in Elizabeth explained, "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear." Right. Explain that verse right there. What is the blessing? Well, the blessing, whenever you say, "Blessed are you, you are going to be thrilled. You're going to be happy, happy are you." Because you are going to bear this on this, going to have a real impact. I mean, blessing and the word happiness can be a little bit interchange sometimes.

34:14 But you're going to thrive. You're going to flourish because this is, Jesus is coming. And your child is going to be blessed as well because it's going to bless the nations. Yeah. I love that. Blessed are you among women and we often overlook that. Right. But the Jewish people have been waiting for their Messiah forever and think of the the myriad of women that have been born, you know, since Adam and Eve all the way through all the narratives up to this point in history. And you are that one. I mean, how amazing that would be. Yeah. I mean, you're the one.

34:54 I mean, that's what, I mean, it's like knock on my head. Is this real? Well, yeah. I mean, she's just a teenager. I mean, probably doing things teenagers do and doing the things that, you know, maybe going through puberty, who knows? I mean, all these things. I mean, she's just a teenager in her house carrying on learning the ways of the Jews and Jewish women and learning the ways of life and all of a sudden her whole world changes. I mean, she goes, and that's why she says you have not forgotten me. Yeah. And that's in verse 43. Look at her response. I mean. Why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me as soon as he heard the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby and my womb leap for joy?

35:41 That's what you refer to. Yeah. Yeah. I just love her response. And I would be the same way. Why would you choose me? But yet, it's very exciting to be chosen. Also. Well, that's Elizabeth talking there. Yeah. So Elizabeth is saying, you know, you came over to see me. And all of a sudden, and obviously there's a relationship there. There's some kind of connection. And you came over to see me. And yeah, she, but notice Elizabeth, she's pregnant herself. And she doesn't even talk about her own pregnancy. She rejoices in Mary's pregnancy. Yeah. Most women are really ecstatic. And all of a sudden this young teenager comes over and is pregnant.

36:22 You know, and you can see Elizabeth like, well, gee, which, you're pregnant too, but she just goes, this is amazing. We're all part of this unfolding story. Yeah. That God is going to right now forever. He's changing the story. Yeah. It's writing new chapters in the story. And he's revealing to us what's been concealed. You know, some people talk about what's in the old Testament concealed is in the New Testament revealed. Who's going to sit on David's throne? Who's the Messiah? How is it all going to work? How's David's throne going to be established? Is there going to be this and is there going to be that? And all of a sudden here it is.

37:03 He got the answer. It's coming right here in these two women. Yeah. And then the narrative shifts away from Elizabeth and goes towards Mary. Yeah. And now we pick it up in verse 46. This is Mary's response. This is Mary's song. Right. And she, you know, she right away, she says something. And you can see this. This is a very heart-touching kind of thing. She says, my soul glorifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices. He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant for now on all generations will call me blessed. So notice Mary is saying you haven't forgotten me.

37:45 You haven't forgotten me. And you have not forgotten me. And I think people during this time of your Christmas often feel that somewhere, especially seniors. Sometimes feels forgotten or ignored or overlooked. And she says, you're mindful of this. You're mindful of this. And I think this is why we say Jesus for everyone because he's aware of everybody's circumstances. Even Mary's. I mean, I was just a servant, Cross, a teenager. It's this huge Roman empire and living in this oppressed culture. And all of a sudden you are coming through me in a culture like this.

38:30 I thought you'd come to the palace. I thought you'd come to the synagogue. I thought you'd come to the priests. I thought you'd come to the Pharisees or some Pharisees wife or a Sages wife. And you're coming to me. And I think sometimes we forget that God doesn't forget us. God can use us no matter where our economics are, our health, no matter what. That isn't forgotten. And it appeared that he had 400 silent years as you mentioned. I mean, Mary and that culture are probably going, this is 400 years. I mean, how long have we been a country? Think about that. 400 years, nothing, no profit, no voice.

39:14 Mary fell forgotten and felt like God wasn't there. I'm sure a number of the people in that particular culture, Jewish culture, had wondered, where's the glory? Where's all the power? Where's the authority? And some people at this time of year, Christmas sometimes is really hard for a while. A whole lot of other people celebrate. There are a number of people out there who wonder where is God. What's he up to? I had an experience like that just about two or three weeks ago. Yeah. And so share a little bit about that. Yeah. Yeah. My daughter asked if I would take her car over to Fred Meyer and fill up. And I got there about 10 to 10, Fred Meyer's, he asked with a person behind there that can help you close his up at 10.

39:58 So I was out there filling up her tank and the individual who was in the kiosk came out and asked me, well, how you doing? And I said, well, I'm grateful for Thanksgiving. I had a good Thanksgiving. I'm grateful for gas prices nudging down a little bit. That's very, very helpful. And something in my mind just asked him. So I said, well, how are you doing? It's Christmas season. And he said horrible. And he started to cry. This is a guy that I don't know anything about. He just said horrible. And I said, well, what's happening? What's mine that he has? He said, I have an 11 year old daughter. She's up at Dornbecker. She has leukemia.

40:38 They're giving her six to 12 months to live. I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm forgotten. I feel like everything is going wrong no matter what I try to do to help. I can't. I feel helpless. I feel like I don't know where to go. My wife's a quarter job. So she can be up there around the clock. I'm working double shifts. And I am so tired. I'm so exhausted. He said, I don't know where to turn. I feel like nothing I do works out. Nobody's out there to help. And I just put my arm around them and called them by name and just said, look, God is there.

41:19 And you might feel forgotten, but God can work in your daughter Olivia's life. God can work in your family. God can do some great things. And he said, well, you answered me the question, why? Why has God given Olivia this terrible diagnosis? And I just said, well, I don't know. But I know that she's not forgotten. I know that he grieves as well as you do. He feels your pain and your heart. And I said, there's God and he can help. Well, long story short, we were able to provide for them financially. I took his name down and we helped him. And I saw him yesterday as a matter of fact. And he just cried and said, I don't know why you helped us. We paid one of his-- two months of his utility bills and gave him $400 for food.

42:06 And he just couldn't believe it. And he realized through the church that he wasn't forgotten. And I think God at this particular time says to Mary in the Jewish race in all humanity, I'm forgotten. I'm forgotten your need. I haven't forgotten the messed up situation the world is in. I mean, the world was messed up in Rome too. Messed up. I mean, there was high taxation. There was a lot of oppression. They were under the thumb of Rome. Saicero Papism. I mean, Caesar was the guy. And he was in charge. And they were oppressed. And they wondered.

42:47 And sometimes people feel that way right now. What's going on in their own lives, they feel like they can't make ends meet. I mean, I've forgotten person. Am I even connected to anything out there? Or am I just drifting, not knowing anything? And I think this is really a good indication that God knows your situation. Notice, she says here, my humble state. I mean, God's aware of your needs. God's aware of where you are, where you aren't all of it. And so Mary's song is, the implications for us today are what?

43:28 Well, the implications are is that everyone is valuable to God. That's the implications. Everybody is made in the image of God. It's not an issue of your education. It's not an issue of your money. It's not an issue of your status in life. It's not an issue of your material goods. Everyone is valuable. God sees everyone made in his image and loves equally. In other words, people are valuable to God. People matter to God because they're made in his image. I mean, Mary probably felt like, I don't matter. I was a 13, 14-year-old kid in this huge Roman culture. And all of a sudden, he turns around that whole thing. In fact, if we go on down in the text there, we'll see here that God not only understands that and he doesn't forget anyone.

44:16 I mean, not a single mom, not a single woman. There are people out there fighting for their lives with their jobs. God has forgotten me. Nope, he hasn't. There's dads out there. There's widows and widows out there right now who are alone. Has God forgot me? No, he has not. Come to him and you'll see him do some things that are just beyond which you could ever imagine. And Mary sees it here. She sees it. Notice he's seen it. And he turns in the next few verses, he does a revolutionary thing here, Mark, which is pretty amazing.

44:57 A revolutionary thing because the song, I have the song, The Beatles in my mind when I think of this because The Beatles said, you say you want a revolution, well, we all want to change the world. You tell me that it's evolution. Well, we all want to change the world. Well, he changes the world right here. And this is not just the world in a material way. This is a world in structure. This is a world in status. This is how God views the world. I mean, he changes the whole situation. Can we look at this for a second? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, let's take a look. She says, the mighty one has done great things. Don't worry, verse four, yeah.

45:38 We're on verse 49. 49. The mighty one has done great things for me. Holy is his name. It says here, he has performed mighty deeds with his arms. Notice he has scattered those who are proud in their inn most thoughts. In other words, people who think they're something else, people who think that they're the ones in control, people who think that they have the status and power, he scatters them. They are no longer the key to life. They're no longer the ones everybody should be looking at. Because now he's taking this humble maid and making her a revolutionary. You're going to bear Jesus. And he's going to have a revolutionary effect. It says here that he has brought down rulers from their thrones and has lifted up the humble.

46:20 He used to be that if you were a ruler, that you were the, everybody says, "Oh, wouldn't it be great to be the president?" And she's saying, "It's even greater to be a humble servant bearing Jesus." And so he takes all the values that we think, status, power, wealth, all of it, turns it upside down and says, "That's not what I look at. I look at the heart. I look at availability. I look at worship. I look at your heart and your faith." Notice he says this, "He has filled the hungry with food, with good things, and sent the rich away empty." That's completely the opposite. Most of the time we think the wealthy have everything.

47:01 They're not empty. But what he's done here in Mary now is he's filled up. He said, "I filled you up with good things. You're no longer poor, even though you might not have the food. You are no longer poor. In my eyes, your status, who you are is so much more important than rich." It was just considered the poor were oppressed by God, the rich were blessed by God. And he says, "That's not true. That's not true. The poor can be blessed just like the rich." And he's taking all the values that we think are important, turns them right upside down and says, "Look, I'm for everyone." And there's no wealthy people that are more blessed than humble people.

47:43 I mean, he goes on and he talks a lot about that. Changes everything. It's a revolutionary thing. Absolutely. He hasn't failed, even though you may not be where a lot of people are. He hasn't failed you. Yeah. You know what's amazing about the scriptures is that they were relevant back then and they're relevant today. Oh, they are. And one of the things, a couple of things that you're drawing out, are there's some spiritual truths. And the first truth that you brought out is that the God is not forgotten you. Right. And then number two is that God will not fail you. Nope. He will not. He will not fail you. And that's, she says, "As notice, for the mighty one is done great things."

48:25 She uses mighty. He has done mighty things. He's that word "might." "Might" is saying, "There's none like you." And he's not going to fail you, no matter where you are right now. So God will do great things through you and you and with you, regardless of where you may be. And that's in verse 51. Yes. And then he says, "He has scattered those who are proud in their inn most thoughts." What does that mean? Well, those who think they've arrived, those who think they are. And of what you were talking about. Yeah. The revolution of those that, those that think that they are right, that they have the power, you know, I'm in control.

49:10 I'm the center of the universe. He says, "No, you're not. Dooms." I'm, you may have power. But that's not what I'm looking for. You know, I'm looking for humble hearts. I'm looking for people who will worship me. I can use those kind of people. Not that he can't use the rich. Not that he can't use people with money. Even rich people can be humble. Yeah. Even they can have a sense that Jesus owns everything. I'm just blessed to have it. But the arrogant, the people who say, "Hey, I've arrived. This is life." No, not always. Not always. Yeah. It goes back to, you know, where do you store your treasures in heaven?

49:50 Do you store them with your wealth? Is that your, your confidence as you walked this planet? Or do you store up your treasures in heaven, which, you know, rust aren't going to destroy it? Well, that's right. And that's in, or are egos. Or are egos. And that's right. That's a Matthew chapter seven, you know? You can't serve both God and money. And Jesus says that. You, you know, if you store up stuff here and that's what you're putting your hope in as we'll see later, if you're putting your hope in that, that's not very good place, which you're hoping. And he's not saying God doesn't, you know, isn't down on wealth.

50:31 He's not down on people. What he's down on is, you know, the condition of your heart. And what you do with that money, does it serve God or does it serve your self? That's exactly right, Mark. That's exactly right. It's, it's by saying, you know, I have all this money and God has given it to me and I'm going to use it for him. I'm going to use it for the betterment of culture. I mean, it's not about me. It's not because I'm some good person that I've been given all this wealth. I've been given this wealth by God. And so she just says, you know, hey, everything's going to be turned upside down here, you know, the world's going to change status, you know, it's still that way. People with the cool cars, all that. We all think that. And we compare our lives to theirs.

51:13 I think we failed. And God says, no, wait a minute. That's not my standard. That's not my standard. My standard is a humble heart and availability. And he says that very clearly in verse 52, he has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. And then in 53, he says, he has filled the hungry with good things, has sent the rich away empty. And so be careful where you store your riches. That's exactly it. Yeah. And when it says here that he has brought down rulers from their thrones, what does that mean? That baby would soon become Lord.

51:55 Lord of the universe, Lord of life, he was Lord. He came into the world. That baby would grow and rise from the dead and now sits on the throne ruling. So there is no other name under heaven. There's nobody more powerful than Jesus. That little baby would ultimately grow, die, be buried, rise again and set at the right hand of the Father as the Son of God because he was God. And now there's nobody like him. He's ruling the earth right now. He rules the world with two things, grace. That's one of our great songs, right? Right. Yeah. That's exactly what's happening. And I want everybody to understand that this is Luke writing this narrative, but these are Mary's words.

52:36 These. Right. Just amazed at how brilliant she was, how wise she was at that young of an age. And when she's told by the Holy Spirit or by the angel that she's going to be with child, her response was this. I mean, that's amazing. Where does she get that kind of words? Where does she get that narrative to be able to respond? And yet Zachariah, whose her elder, a priest, learned it in the word and then he denies the whole thing and rejects it and says, no way.

53:19 That can't possibly be true. And then she responds to the opposite. Well, he probably had a chance and his silent time to repent a little bit. So we got to be careful not to read too much. I mean, maybe initially that was his response, but I'm sure when he stayed moot for a long time, he probably thought about it again and said, well, obviously it's true. I got to make sure I'm on the right team. Exactly. And I think that I think Mary, what you see here is she either had great education because parents spread this down. Judaism was an oral religion. There was no written religion. So her mom and her dad had to pass this down to her.

54:00 And she had to learn it somewhere and probably good synagogue training from her parents passed it down to her as a young woman. And so she obviously had a great grasp of it. And let's not forget, just as the Holy Spirit worked in Elizabeth, I'm sure the Holy Spirit was working in Mary as well. So we need to realize that the Spirit of God was also upon her, upon her because this child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. So obviously the Spirit of God is at work in her. But on a ground level, obviously she grew up in a home where the Torah and the other sides were talked about, where the birth of the Messiah and all of these things.

54:43 She understood what the Messiah would do. The Isaiah chapter where it says, the government will be on his shoulders. Well, that's what she says. The rulers will be cast down. The government is going to be on his shoulders. Isaiah 9.6. So this Mary's song is her response to finding out that she's pregnant with child that she's not had sexual relations with the Messiah. Exactly. Exactly. And unlike some people in our culture, I did not have sexual relations with that one. She can actually say that. She can actually, you know, and where does she get the power? Where does she get the wisdom to be able to respond in such a positive way?

55:29 It's remarkable. And so what you're saying is her response, truth number one, God is not forgotten you versus 46 through 49. Truth number two, God will not fail you versus 51 through 53. What's the next truth that we can glean from this scripture? Well, if you notice here, she uses the word here that we all appreciate. It's found in verse 50. Notice his mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation. And then she goes on to say 54. He has helped to serve in Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.

56:11 So the word mercy comes out there and mercy is an interesting, interesting word. And I think it would help us a bit to kind of look at what does that word mercy means because we all, you know, we all have past failures. We all have, I mean, let, I mean, if you really look at the story of Israel, Israel is a story of constant failure and idolatry. You read it and they cannot get away from idolatry and they just don't seem to be able to acknowledge God. When you use the word idolatry, what does that mean? It's placing anything and trusting in anything for your life apart from God himself.

56:53 And so in the Old Testament, what happens is they get taken over by people and they just give their selves to false religions. They even sacrifice their children at one point. Yeah. I mean, as even far as the Ten Commandments, they've made a golden idol down below while Moses is up there receiving the Ten Commandments, they can't seem to stay away from some kind of object of worship or some kind of idolatry. They just can't seem to do it. And it's a tragedy because throughout the whole Testament, God is always saying, please acknowledge me. I just want you to say I'm the one who has been caring for you.

57:33 Often people think of God in the Old Testament as this angry, bitter, warlike God. And if you really read it, he's not. What he is is he's this loving God who says, you guys keep committing adultery with other idols. You keep on giving your loyalty to other people and other idols. You shun me. You have to. That's why he says I hate divorce. He was divorced. Israel divorced him. That's why he says I hate divorce. He's been divorced. They divorced him from their lives. And the book of Hosea is all about that too.

58:14 That's what the book of Hosea is about. One of the things that I appreciate about the Scriptures is that a lot of people look at the Bible Old Testament, New Testament as something that they could never attain to. And yet when you read the Scriptures, it's a story after story of man's failure, just like you were talking about. Absolutely. There are lessons for us to learn from so that we don't repeat some of those patterns or those stories in our own life and they're there for our good. And it's just amazing how the Bible, it's kind of for me it's a validation that this was not written by man.

59:00 Because if it was written by man, we would make it a lot more flowery. We'd make it much more heroic. We'd make ourselves more heroic. And yet really the Scriptures is not about our heroism. It's about the downfall of our human nature. Well, the Bible paints all its heroes as with feed of clay man. There are no perfect people in the Bible. Abraham lied to protect himself. David committed adultery. Solomon just couldn't keep himself in order by teasing around with the Lila. I mean, the disciples put their foot in their mouth over and over and over again.

59:41 I mean, the stories, you read those stories and you realize man, there's adultery, there's murder, there's all kinds of things going on. I mean, dumb vows like Jeb the makes a really foolish vow. He's so excited about God. He says, I'll sacrifice what comes out of my house and it's his daughter. He makes a foolish vow. So over and over again, the Bible is full of people who need mercy. Maybe it's good to define mercy really quick here. The Bible talks about three things, justice, mercy and grace. So justice is essentially getting what we deserve. Okay. Grace is getting what we don't deserve, which is what the New Testament is all about.

1:00:23 We get eternal life, you know, we don't deserve it. And mercy is God withholding from us what we do deserve. So let me give a personal story. People get the picture. I was driving down Highway 18. I just spoken at a retreat at the Oregon coast. I was driving on Highway 18. It was Saturday night late. I was going to be, you know, speaking in the church on Sunday morning, I wanted to get home. I love driving on Highway 18 in these highways. I was going too fast. All of a sudden behind me pulls up this Dodge charger with this sheriff and he sheds light right in my car, man.

1:01:05 And he comes all in the passenger side because the road so narrowed, he goes, Hey, do you know how much you know how much you were driving? Now I'm going to be a confessor here. So showing you I need mercy. So he goes, you know how fast you were driving? I said, Yeah, I think I was driving like 84. Well, he goes, he goes, no, you're driving about 86, 87. I said, Why do you go? Yeah. That's way over the speed limit. And I said, I said, Oh, man, I am so sorry. And he said, Well, you know, there are two kinds of people who drive these highways wrong. The slow ones, there is dangerous.

1:01:46 And then there's people like you. And he goes, you're one of the fast people. And I said, I'm one of those fast people. I admit it. I just, this little car I have, this little Honda, it just drives so cool. It's fun driving down this road. I can fest you. I'm one of those. So he says, Well, excuse me, let me go back and check on things. He goes back. He comes back up and he says, Look, you have a very good driving record. He goes, I don't want to spoil it. So I'm not going to give you a ticket, but I am going to ask you to drive this speed limit all the way home on your honor.

1:02:31 Now that's mercy. He could have given me a huge ticket. I figured I was going to be in for a lot of money. But he comes to the door and says, I'm not going to do that. That's mercy. That's what God has done in the Old Testament. And that's what God has done in Jesus. All our sin, all of it that deserves punishment, all our past mistakes, all our what ifs, all our gosh, I wish I had done this, all the things that just trouble us. God says, No. I'm not going to treat you according to that. I'm going to treat you according to my grace. I'm going to give you what you don't deserve. I'm going to give you grace. Now I can give you justice. And that means you could pay.

1:03:11 I'm going to give you not only mercy. I'm going to give you grace. I'm going to give you an abundant life that you don't really deserve, but it all comes because of what Jesus has done. You can have my riches at the expense of Jesus Christ, all yours, even though you don't deserve it because you put your faith in Jesus. So she says that right here, mercy, Israel is just one big story of mercy, one big story of mercy. Exodus 34 is the key verse there. I'm a God who is merciful and compassionate, slowed, anger and abounding and loving kindness from generation to generation. Look, I'm slow to anger. But as we get older, look back at our lives and go, oh man, what a mess.

1:03:57 We should have done this. I shouldn't have done that. We get into that whole thing, right? But it's interesting in Psalm 23, what does the Psalmist write in the later part of that? Surely goodness and mercy, listen to this, will follow me all the days of my life, will follow me. So we look back and go, oh man, that stuff is just, and God says, no, my goodness and my mercy are back there. I'm going to, I'm going to wash that off. I'm going to just show you my goodness and mercy by not keeping bringing that up. It's just going to, my goodness and mercy is just going to clean up stuff. It's just going to make your life better than you could ever imagine. And so that's, that's the difference.

1:04:39 Mercy and she says that your mercy is we don't deserve to even have the Messiah come. We don't even deserve to bear this. We don't even deserve any of this. And here you are. You're, you're faithful. You're coming and you're fulfilling your plan, even though we blew it so many times, you're going to fulfill your plan anyway. You're going to be faithful to your word because you said you would. And that's the amazing thing about this whole thing. She's just saying, you're faithful God, even when we messed up. So we need to wrap it up. And so let's, let's do this. Give us, tell us where we've been.

1:05:23 Give us the three points. And then I want you to conclude with truth number three. And when it comes to God's faithful love and forgiveness, explain how we can embrace that, how we can hold on to it like, like, like, Mary did. Well, you know, this whole, this whole thing starts again in the Old Testament and God made certain promises in the Old Testament to Israel, a covenant with them. He says, this is my end. You know, be obedient. They could not.

1:06:03 Over and over they blew it. Over and over they send. Over and over and over. No matter how God tried to show his love, they rejected it. I mean, you talk about having your love rejected. He did that. He, you know, things shut down for 400 years and suddenly all of a sudden in his faithfulness, even though it took that long, he says, I'm going to fulfill what I said. I'm going to fulfill my covenant to you. I'm going to fulfill my word. I'm sending Jesus to Messiah. And he's going to die for you. He's going to be buried for you and he's going to rise for you. So Mary is the person that delivers that message because that's what the angel says there, I bring you good news.

1:06:47 It's going to be good news. There's good news out there. You thought everything was bad news? I'm bringing you good news. So he brings us good news and a Savior is going to be born to you. His name is going to be Jesus. And Jesus is short for, you know, Joshua which means salvation from the Lord. So Jesus is going to be the purveyor of the salvation. And Mary, I haven't forgotten my covenant. I haven't forgotten you. I haven't forgotten the people. I have done mighty things for you and I won't fail you. You thought I might have just shut the door and said done. I haven't. I'm still working behind the scenes. And then he says, my love and forgiveness and mercy are available and they're coming in big order.

1:07:27 If you think I was merciful before, I'm sending my son to be up close and personal with you. And so I haven't forgotten you. I haven't failed you and my forgiveness is available to you still. And now it's available to everybody, not just her. It's available to all of us. And so we take this story of Christmas and we make it personal. We say, God, I've lived a life that has been marked by selfishness. It's sin. Man, I made mistakes in my life. I'm not sure about my relationship with you, but I need your mercy. I want you to forgive me for those things. I want you to wash those things out of my life and I want you to come into my life like you came into Elizabeth and Mary's life through your Holy Spirit and I want you to change me and I want to make you my Lord and my Savior.

1:08:20 I want you to save me from all those past mistakes. I want to confess my sins because you're faithful and just to forgive them. And then I want to experience your mercy and new and a fresh and I want to be filled with the Spirit to live a completely different life. And I want salvation. It's life not only today, it's life in the future because the Bible says, for God's love the world that He gave is one and only Son. And here it is, that's just the start of that, right? That whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life because God didn't send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. It's just aching to be merciful to you, aching to give you salvation, aching for you to come to Him, aching for you to become part of His family.

1:09:07 And this is the start. It's the greatest story ever. It's the greatest story ever told Mark. And I'm just flabbergasted that so many people are against that story. They devote their lives to trying to destroy that story. And it's not that, like you said, you said it so well that God didn't come to this world to destroy or to condemn the world. He came to embrace the world and to bring everybody into His arms. Exactly right. Why you would reject that? I just is mind-boggling to me. Well, some people reject it because they've had bad people say their Christians, but when you once you can into a place where you see life and you see Jesus and you see what He's done on the real deal, man, you can't resist it.

1:10:01 You can't reject it. You know, I've seen it in my life. I've seen it in countless, hundreds, thousands of other people's lives, you know, through my ministry, change and all of a sudden, man, they are changed. Marriages, they're where they treat their kids, the way they view their work, the life and peace they have, the chalone that comes in their hearts, it all changes. Suddenly, there's this sense that everything will be okay, God's in control. Yeah. And Christmas is about exchanging gifts. And the greatest gift that we can give to one another or that God gives to us is the gift of eternal life. And it's the gift of justice, mercy and grace in what He did for us.

1:10:46 It's a free gift. All we have to do is receive it and hold it. That's right. That's exactly right. Like we open a gift under the tree. It's so simple, just so complex. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we mess it up in our own hearts. And with our own thoughts, we mess it up and God makes it really simple. You know, as many as believed in Him to them, He gave the right to become children of God, even though who believed in His name. That's it. Yeah. Well, amen. Thank you. Thank you, Tom. Yeah. Thank you, Mary. Christmas to all the listeners too out there. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be a part of your day. Absolutely. Absolutely. And if somebody wants to reach out to you and share their testimony or share a story, how would they best reach out?

1:11:35 Probably the best way would be to email me at Tom@gatewaychurchpdx.com. Just email me there. You can call the church at 503-252-1435. You can do that. And we can have our office administrator bring you through to me and you can tell me your story. We'd love to hear it. And yeah, if you just email me, that would be great. That would be fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah. All right. And I want to say, Mary Christmas to all of our listeners and we're so grateful for the many listeners that we do have out there and we're going to continue to bring the great message, not only of Christ, but the great message of how we can age more gracefully over the years and we're going to have many, many more guests coming up in 2024.

1:12:32 This is Mark Turnbull, your host, and I want to thank all of you for tuning in to Aging today. And we are the podcast where together we're exploring the many options to aging on your terms. Join us every Monday when we release a new conversation on Aging today to your favorite podcast channel. And remember, we're all in the process of aging. And as we age, we really are better together. So stay young at heart. You make me feel so young. You make me feel like spring is from. And every time I see your face, I'm such a happy.

1:13:12 I'm an individual, the moment that you speak. I want to go play hide and see. I want to go and bounce the moon just like a toy balloon, well you and I, I'll just like a bullet tauts, running across the metal. They can have lots of, forget me, not so you made me feel so young. You made me feel there are songs to be sung. Beings to be run and wonderful thing to be fun. And you know when I'm old and grey. You've been listening to Aging today, where together we explore the options to aging on your terms.

1:13:59 Join Mark in his guest next week for another lively discussion on proactively Aging on your terms, connecting you to the professional advice of his special guests with the goal of creating better days throughout the aging process. Your host has been Mark Turnbull. Join Mark in his guest every week on Aging today, your podcast to exploring your options for aging on your terms. And you went old and grey. You make me feel the way I feel today. Cause you make me feel so. You make me feel so. You make me feel so young.

1:14:42 So young. You make me feel so young. You make me feel so young. (upbeat music) (music ends)